


Naoya at the races

by JotTheDragonScribe



Category: Persona Series, Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: Backwards Races, Gen, M/M, Maki got better after Pandora and joins them for the rest of 2nd year AU, Naoya Runs Fast, Sports Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26007652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JotTheDragonScribe/pseuds/JotTheDragonScribe
Summary: There are pros and cons to running really fast.One of the cons? Your friends treating you like a get-rich-quick scheme when sports' day comes around, by entering you into a ridiculous new race that they think you're bound to win.But things may not be as simple as everyone thinks...
Relationships: Kido Reiji/Toudou Naoya, Toudou Naoya & Sonomura Maki
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16





	1. In which Brown and Ayase exploit their friends for fast money

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little short story I wrote, to ignore every other fic I gotta finish, you know how it is.
> 
> I was playing persona 1 on ppsspp right and i had the speed button on but also the run button pressed and I entered a hallway and I feel like me and Naoya nearly Back To The Future'd it

Naoya ran pretty fast, he thought.

It made him relatively popular in school, which was good, and made him first pick for most races in the sports day, which was bad.   
Not that he minded competing in a race, no, but whenever sports day was coming up, he was caught in the crossfire between all the teams that wanted him in their lineup.   
The ones he didn't pick would be _very_ upset, something he also didn't want, because the sports clubs' members were relentless. Which was, really, what you would expect from clubs so focused in teams and strength or whatnot - all the different sports were practically micronations, at this point, nations at war with each other and eventually with him.

Even in class, he could feel stares boring into him from all sides, something that made him very fidgety and made more than one teacher ask if he wanted to go to the bathroom. Which was, as one might guess, very embarrassing.

Maki, bless her heart, tried to distract him by absolutely destroying him at Uno during lunch. It worked, until two familiar faces barged into the room.  
Hidehiko Uesegi (commonly known as Brown), and Yuka Ayase. Both rubbing their hands in a way that filled Naoya with dread, with grins wider than a fox who just found its way to a chicken coop.

"Theeeeere he is! Naoyeee... Naoriiiiin..... Naonao, my friend, my boy, our champion!", Brown spoke, gesturing widely, just about loud enough for the neighbouring classrooms to hear. He walked with wide strides, as he liked to do, up to Naoya's seat, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him around with a grin. Ayase was close by.

Maki looked at Brown, then Ayase, then traded fearful looks with Naoya, who gulped and decided to bite the bait.  
"Cham... pio-"  
"Yes! Why yes, my homeboy!" Again spoke Brown, clapping his hands together just to make sure that everyone in the vicinity came to check out what the ruckus was about, "'Cuz there's gonna be a **backwards race** on sports day! **Officially**! Authorized by our dearest principal!". The goggle-donning boy cupped his hands around his mouth to megaphone the words 'backwards race' and 'Officially' to, apparently, everyone in town.

Naoya managed to put two and two together.  
"And you want me to run it?"  
Brown slapped him on the shoulder with a lot more force than necessary.  
"Why I'm glad you asked my good amigo! Yes, our very own * **Naoya Toudou** *, the * **Storm of the Halls** *, will be * **this class' champion for the backwards race** *!", the teen shouted, Naoya pondering when would a teacher show up to tell them to shut up and whether people really called him 'Storm of the Halls'.

The earing-having boy was expecting the many race organizers in class (how come they all had to be in / _his_ / class?!) to complain, but their concerns were elsewhere. Such was the power of Brown's charismatic misdirection.  
"Toudou? Backwards race?"  
"I know! The other classes are gonna be eating dust!"  
"What? No way, man. He runs fast / _forwards_ /, not backwards"  
"Totally! You're setting the poor guy up for failure!"  
"You morons! Have you never seen him run in the hallways? He's like a crab! He goes as fast backwards as he goes forwards!"  
"Crabs go sideways, dipstick, and besides, the race has turns! The guy can't turn while running backwards!"  
"Yeah he can!"  
"Nuh-uh!"  
"YEAH-UH!"  
"NUH-UH!"

Oh boy. It was happening again. 

Even Nanjo, who considered himself above such petty squabbles, had closed his book and was staring with that "Don't make me turn this classroom around" look at the group of classmates that were this close to starting a school version of a barfight.

Classroom blitz? Wondered Naoya, as Brown and Ayase moved hurriedly, snaking through the lines of tables, towards the group of generic classmates whose names our dear protagonist couldn't hope to remember.  
Yuka wasn't there just for show and she decided to demonstrate that she was as manipulative as her business associate.   
"Guys... Fighting is so, like, last year. If you throw punches, you're gonna end up all ugly, y'know?" Casually commented Ayase, twirling some of her hair around her finger, "If only there was a way to solve this without a brawl..."  
The squabbling group, both guys and girls, had stopped their fighting then, avidly listening to Ayase.  
"Ah, my most dear of homeslices, there is!" Brown said, the size of his grin enough to split his head.  
With calm, moderated, polite discussion?  
"With some... Discreet bets!"  
Nanjo, Maki and Mark sighed, shaking their heads. Of course.  
Naoya, on the other hand, was deeply interested.

As the group of disagreeing teens were already placing their bets with the bookees, Naoya got up from his seat and walked over to them, wad of emergency-bet cash in his hands, eyes as sparkly as the surface of a spring lake.  
"Hey, I'd like to place a bet! What are my odds?"

His two friends looked over at him with sour faces. The betting classmates lowered their money-holding hands and eyed him suspiciously, muttering amongst themselves.  
"Hang on, hang on. Toudou, a word?", asked Uesegi, and threw an arm over the other's shoulders to drag him across the clasroom.

"Do racehorses bet on their races?", asked Brown, with the coldest voice Naoya had ever heard him use.  
"Don't call Naoya a horse!", Maki corrected, aproaching the duo with the determination of... Of a... Small horse.  
"Answer the question, Toudou"  
"N-no?"  
"And why is that?"  
"Because... They're... Horses?"  
Brown stared past the two of them, realizing his mistake.  
"Do racehorse riders bet on their races?"  
"Jockeys"  
"Do jockeys bet on their races?"  
"Guess not..."  
"Right! Because..."  
"They'd make it seem like the race has been fixed..."  
"Eeexactly! Smart boy, Naorin, have a sugar cube!"  
Maki once again complained against treating her friend like a horse, but Naoya had already taken the sugar cube from Brown's hand. The girl gave him a disappointed stare, to which the boy replied with a shrug. This was probably the only payment he was going to get, right? The girl shook her head as she brushed the topic aside.  
"Still, as Naoya's / _agent_ /", she said, removing Brown's arm from around Naoya's shoulders and placing her own in its place, "I demand my client be given financial compensation regardless of result!"  
"...Nhuh?"  
"...Give him money whether he wins or he loses"

Brown shook his head, crossing his arms.  
"And where am I gonna get that money if he loses, huh? From my own pocket?" The boy gestured with his thumb to the classmates behind him, who were now placing bets with Ayase, "I'm counting on the schmucks who don't know your backwards-trot to provide my funds!"  
"Let me pitch in too, then!"

The trio watched as Masao, often called Mark, approached them with hands in his pockets. "Two fancy dinners if you lose, Nao'"  
Maki turned towards him, dragging poor Naoya along with her.  
"Is that all you think he's worth?"  
Mark chuckled, placing his hands in a placating manner.   
"Alright, alright", he spoke, now crossing his arms behind his head, "Name your price, then, Maki."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, but remembered whose agent she was supposed to be. 

She again turned her head to look at Naoya, uncomfortably half-crouching with slumped shoulders in order to accomodate for Maki's shorter height.  
"Anything's fine with me, really... A dinner with everyone would be nice", Naoya suggested and then shrugged, wincing from the pain that leaning over was causing on his back.

"Well then, a fancy dinner at Peace Burger with as many guests as my client says!", Maki said, shaking hands with Mark (who blushed Just a little bit at the contact) to seal the contract.   
Brown was less than amused.

"Hey! What's his motivation to win if he has a consolation prize!", the boy complained, crossing his arms. Mark looked at him slyly.  
"What? You don't trust him to win whether he tries or not?", the blonde boy asked in a mocking tone, which shut Brown up. Hidehiko raised a very unsubtle eyebrow at Mark.

"Of course I do! You ever see him run?!", asked Brown, making a long, sweeping gesture with his hand extended out and flat, making a Vwoosh noise to go along, as if to symbolize Naoya's speed.  
Mark merely nodded, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.  
"I have. I was there with ya in SEBEC, eatin' his dust", the boy kindly reminded.  
"An' ya still bettin' against him?!"  
"I am."

Brown leaned forward, inches away from Mark's face, dramatically tapping his finger against the side of his head.  
"You all right in attic, Mark'o? I ain't sure I wanna accept a dinner invitation from someone not sound of mind!"  
Mark shrugged with that languid smile of his.  
"Who says you're invited?"

Brown turned to Naoya in dramatic shock, one hand to his chest. Naoya dismissed his worries with a shake of his hand. Yeah, yeah, you're invited.  
"You're already trying to plant the seeds of _this-corn_ between us! Well", Brown said, standing up straight with his nose turned up, hands to the sides of his coat as the other three wondered if he meant / _discord_ /, "It's not gonna work, Marky Boy! Naoya's my champ, and he's gonna take home the gold for me-"  
Maki applied a swift punch to Hidehiko's arm to correct him.  
"Ow! Us! I meant us!", the boy corrected himself, rubbing his arm in pain, "Geeeez, Maki! Where'd you learn to punch like that?!"

Maki and Brown shook hands, and then Brown and Mark, relunctantly.  
"You'll see, Inaba. Me and Naoya are as thick as thieves!", the goggle-wearing boy said, turning on his heels and hurriedly rushing to Ayase's side, who was counting money, sitting cross-legged on someone's desk in a very brazen way.  
"Pshaw, you're just thick, Uesegi!", Mark replied, chuckling to himself before turning to Maki and Naoya.  
Who were looking at him with odd faces.  
"L-Like dumb, y'know! Thick as in dumb!", Mark hastily corrected himself, turning an intense shade of red. "G-Gah, nevermind!", the boy stammered, pulling his hat over his face and stumbling back to his seat.

Naoya sighed, still hunched down due to Maki's arm over his shoulder.  
"Oh, right! I should've probably tried to get you out of the situation!", the girl said, placing a hand over her mouth in realization.  
"It's fine, Maki", the boy once again sighed, patting the hand on his shoulder, "I'm just sad they didn't take my bet..."


	2. Who in the world polishes the floor at 6 am

The early morning dew clung to his school jersey, making it nearly glow in the rising sun. The light breeze still made him shiver, and he skipped from foot to foot, both to stretch and to warm himself up. As an upside, the birdsongs rang clear through the campus making the scene almost poetic.

A scene the boy would've certainly liked to enjoy, but there were more pressing matters to be attended to.

Naoya stood in the racetrack lines, marked in white on the school's concrete ground, destroyer of oh so many knees. A moment of silence for the scratched and bloody.   
Beside him, closer to the school building, there stood a handful of his friends. Hidehiko and Yuka, overseeing their champion's training, practically rubbing their hands at the though of all the certain money they were going to get without moving a finger. Maki, arguably his best friend, placing herself in the line of danger for his sake and maybe just to play agent for a bit, making sure the two bookees didn't mess with her client. Mark, who had been dragged into school at the crack of dawn by one of the other three because, as it happened, he was to be the one who'd reward Naoya's loss and as patron he had to suffer as much as any one else.   
And Eriko, whose purpose there was unknown to all. She was the elly-phant in the room, thought Naoya, earning himself a groan from his own conscience. That was Brown's level of jokes, geez.

"Uh... Elly, there's nothing happening right now. I'm really just training?", Naoya commented, hands in his jersey's pockets. While he highly doubted that was the case, he was worried that their presence here made her think there was some school event going on at... 6:30 am. Yipes, did Maki really have to drag him from home so early?!  
"Oh, yes! I heard of some 'horse races' happening. I was surprised to see you were the 'horse', Naoya!", Elly laughed. Her arms were crossed and she, unlikely the other four, never shivered an inch. Must've been the bitter british breeze that she had been accustomed to, the lack of sunlight... The apparent horse races...

The earing-wearing boy shook his head and sighed. He could only hope this nickname didn't stick like "That Guy With An Earing" did. Making a ranking in his head, he decided that "Storm of the Halls" was undoubtly above "Neigh-oya" and "Pierced Guy". 

Brown skipped over to him to cross the distance between them quickly in exchange of looking very silly, breath coming out in clouds and trying to make it look like the cold wasn't affecting him at all. He was failing miserably.  
He had finally managed to figure out how the cronometer "lent" to them by the P.E. teacher worked, so the training was ready to start.

"Okay, Naorin, this is the track you're gonna be runnin'", Brown said, throwing his arm over Naoya's shoulders and making a sweeping motion with the hand that was holding the cronometer, "One track"  
"Lap"  
"One lap, facing backwards, from here to here again like this, " Brown moved his finger in circles,"going backwards"  
"Counterclockwise?"  
"You leave all the wise-in' to me, Champ! You just move those leg muscles good for the great and awesome me, yeah!"  
Naoya looked back at Maki to make sure he said what he think he said, because the boy was pretty sure he never brought up anything about... "Wise-in".  
Maki shrugged and shook her head, as beffudled as he.

Ayase appeared next to them, seemingly out of nowhere. The girl was small and somewhat lazy, but she could practically /teleport/ when she was interested in something.  
"And for everyone's idol, the adorable me, okay?", Ayase said, giving Naoya two pats on the elbow and making an... Odd, sparkly-eyed face.   
Even expressionless, Ayase could tell what Naoya was thinking.  
"Ya, I know the race is in three days and you got like, basically no practice", she loudly popped the chewing gum she was gnawing on, "But that's like, what we're here to do. And every year they ask you to run, so y'know, you pretty much know this track like the back of your head, right?"  
"Hand."  
"Hell yeah they're gonna hand you the victory! That's the spirit!"  
Naoya blinked twice, bewildered. Did these two just hear whatever they wanted to hear?

His confusion didn't last long, because soon Brown was giving the cronometer a once-over and accidentally pressed the button to start it.  
"Ack!", the boy shouted, nearly dropping the cronometer in surprise, "I dunno how to restart it- Go, go, go!", Brown yelled, giving Naoya a slap on the back (the boy thanked the gods the other didn't decide to aim lower) and rushing back to the side lines.

So Naoya did, after a false start forwards, running backwards as fast as he could shuffle his legs. He quickly found that he had to stare down at his feet to figure where the lines were, since stepping on or out of one would be an instant disqualification. There's some running factoids for ya.   
Staring downwards and going backwards was very disorienting, to say the least. He nearly tripped over his feet several times, his lack of balance growing with every uncertain step backwards he took, and he felt his breakfast start to protest in his stomach as the blood rushed to his head.

Eventually, he crossed the starting line and stopped a few meters after, but not before tripping on a rock and stumbling a few steps.  
"So? How did I do?", asked Naoya not exactly out of concern for this whole operation, just out of curiosity.

By Brown's deathly pale face and wide-eyed stare down at the cronometer and Ayase's death glare, Naoya couldn't imagine it went that well.  
"That was just a first try! He's rusty, let him try again!", Maki intervened, grabbing the two bookees by the shoulder. Mark was waving at Naoya with a credit card in hand, thumbs up on the other, mischievous grin on his face. Eriko had a hand on her cheek, looking rather worried in his direction.

"Yeah. Yeah! He can try again!", Brown cackled, stuffing the cronometer in his pocket, stare rising to pierce through Naoya.  
"He just needs a little MOTIVATION, is all!", Ayase spoke, narrowing her eyes.  
Wuh-oh.

'Hey, buddy?'  
A familiar voice echoed inside of his head. In the back of his mind, Naoya could imagine a figure in all ways equal to his, closing the manga it was reading for a moment to address the one running the body.  
"Kazuya?"  
'You should run'  
Very solid advice.   
"Figured as much"

So Naoya did. This time, forwards, as the gods meant it to be, as he learned to run.

Had Ayase and Brown barely taken a step, Naoya had crossed the entire field, already entering the gym. Storm of the halls! Racehorse on steroids, oh had the two weasels forgot why they asked him in the first place!   
Within a blink, he reached the door to the gym, with another, the door to the main building. Yes, he was the one that gave Hanya a run for his money, in more ways than one! No one in school could ever hope to catch up to him.  
As long as he didn't have to turn suddenly, was all.

Unbestknown to him, or perhaps a possibility he forgot to consider, due to all the praises being sung in his head by his personas, Yuka and Uesugi had given up the second he vanished from sight, but Naoya didn't know that, so he kept running. And running.   
It really wasn't fear at this point, just... A love for the sport, if he could say it? Or maybe he subconsciously knew that if he stopped, those two would eventually come looking for him again to grind his brain to paste with different training regimens, since he was pretty sure neither of their vocabularies included the expression "give up".

He ran, and ran, through the deserted school hallways until he spotted two familiar faces at the end of a hall.  
Reiji! And Yukino!

Yukino, the big sister friend! Yeah, maybe she could barely say "no" to Ayase, but she was wise to Brown's tricks, and the goggled boy (how do YOU like the nickname, Hidehiko!) was more than certainly the brains and driving force of the scheme. Ayase was there for the money, for sure. Yukino could hide him from Brown and physically stop him if necessary!

Reiji! Who he knew would defend him from those two schemers. Because yeah, maybe the... Shirtless? Boy, rarely involved himself in such slapstick misadventures, but Naoya was his /boyfriend/, so it was different. 

The perfect bodyguards to save him from the famished bet sharks!  
Naoya called out to them, waving his hand. The two turned to look at him, startled, trying to explain something to him. Naoya, confused and concerned as to what this something was, prepared to slow down.

And he didn't.

It was already too late when he noticed that his shoes had lost all traction with the floor. He might've stopped running, but now he was sliding through the halls at breakneck speed with nothing to stop him except the large, imposing, fast-approaching wall that welcomed him with open arms.

He collided with it with a loud THUNK, as he had done, embarrassingly, many more times before and probably many more times again.  
Naoya stuck to the wall for a second in very comedic fashion before falling back, square on the ground.   
Reiji's and Yukino's concerned faces appeared in his line of sight, much like the splatter of blood he left behind on the wall.

"... They just polished the floors, Naoya", Reiji warned, a tad too late.  
"Ah," Naoya replied, trying to reach for a tissue to wipe all the blood clogging his nose, "Danks for delling be."


	3. Doctor, doctor! Give me the news! I got a, -record scratch- concussion?!

"Frankly, Naoya. I'm surprised you crashed into a wall yet again!"

The boy sighed to the extent that his bloody nose would allow him to sigh.

"You an be, biss Yoshino"

The school nurse shook her head, hands on her hips. Naoya could only be thankful that she was the only faculty member that was disappointed in him - most of his friends had at least two or three teachers who could say the same of them, after all.

"It's nothing too serious", explained the nurse, returning to her desk to write something down, "You don't seem to have a concussion. Still, if you get a headache, I'll write you a note so the teachers will let you out".

Naoya removed the icepack from his head for a moment, as the cold was starting to bother him. But not for too long, because Reiji, sitting beside him in the nurse office's bed, moved his hand to again hold the pack against his forehead.  
The shirtless boy looked, as usual, serious, sulking and grim, but now avoided Naoya's stare by looking directly at the ground.  
Was he... Embarrassed? What a surprise.  
  
Right before Naoya could dwell over the overprotective boyfriend he got himself, the nurse was already handing him his get-out-of-class-free card. The clicking of her heels against the tile called his attention.

"Again, it's just a nosebleed-", Ms. Yoshino explained as Naoya stored the note safely in his shirt pocket, "-so it should stop in about an hour. Don't tilt your head too much backwards and don't move it suddenly, and you'll be fine"

Naoya would've nodded, but stopped as he realized what that would imply. The nurse crossed her arms, leaning her weight on her right foot.  
"But I _would_ like to hear what you were doing galloping around at 6:30 am".  
No! No more horse jokes, dagnabbit!

"Actually, I'm wondering the same, Naoya. What did Hidehiko do this time?” Yukino asked, looking from her guardpost at the door where she was keeping a lookout for any bet sharks swimming around, out for his blood.

By the way, Naoya couldn't have been more thankful that Yukino didn't ask any questions at his request of keeping Brown and Yuka out. Yeah, maybe they already had a dubious track record, but still. Only now did curiosity get to her, after the boy was all patched up.

Naoya scratched the back of his head with his hand, earning him an unnoticed glare from Reiji. That was tough... How could he even begin to explain such a convoluted, complicated, complex tale of-

"Brown and Ayase somehow convinced our teachers to add a backwards race to the sports festival so they could exploit Naoya and make quick money off of bets."

Like that, apparently.

Yukino moved out of the way to reveal that Maki was at the door, tilting her head slightly to the side to look in, hands behind her back. She nervously waved, glancing between the four people in the room, three of which were expecting further explanations.

"Aaand then they were really angry when it turned out Naoya can't run backwards", explained Maki, looking away from Yukino's intense, arms-crossed stare. The short-haired girl probably didn't even mean to intimidate her, but going from Bodyguard to Reliable Older Sister wasn't instant, after all.

"Yukido, you ca let eh in", Naoya explained, giving the girl the slowest, safest nod he could muster, "She's by ageht".

Yukino in turn gave Maki a curt nod, at which the girl rushed inside to hold Naoya's free hand.

"Naoya! Are you alright?! I was looking for you and I saw that huge blood splatter on the wall!"

"They just polished the floors", explained everyone else in the room at once.

Maki, wide eyed, was amazed at everyone's coordination, but quickly got back on subject. Rather, she let go of Naoya's hand to sit next to him on the bed. Miss Yoshino glanced towards the sitting trio with a raised eyebrow, but did not say anything further and simply leaned back against the wall. She sensed the drama about to go down. Eventually. And boy, was her day usually boring. She would take anything she could get even if it was these crazy kids' ridiculous adventures.

"I should've gotten you out of this mess, Naoya, I'm sorry", Maki sighed, holding her hands together above her knees, staring down at the ground.

Well, that was… Partially true.  
Everyone was to blame, really, Naoya explained. He got way too excited about bets, Maki got carried away, and Mark, their last line of defense against stupidity, decided to egg them on instead.  
Oh, and Yuka and Uesugi started it.

Yeah, they were to blame the most.

So Naoya tried to explain, but with two tissues shoved well into his nostrils, his friends could only make a handful of the words he was, very nasally, saying. Well, somehow Maki got it! Benefits of being his best friend, he supposed? 

"Isn't Nanjo in your class as well? Why didn't he stop you?” Yukki asked, as Ms. Yoshino placed a chair in order for her to sit down at the entrance. Yukino, flustered, denied it and insisted the nurse take for herself, earning her a chuckle from Miss Yoshino.

Naoya and Maki looked at each other. Huh.

"Yeah, criticizing us _is_ something he really likes doing...", Maki pondered, hand on her chin.

"You _are_ aware that it's not my _sworn duty_ to warn you when you're doing something stupid, right?"  
And there was Nanjo, being blocked at the door by Yukino's chair, which she was forced to accept by a teasing Ms. Yoshino. Not even his frustrated "do you _mind_ " moved her.

Eriko appeared from the side, tapping Yukino on the shoulder. This time, the short haired girl responded much more favourably, looking back at Eriko.

"I'm sorry, could we enter? I'm concerned about Naoya, after I saw him dash off like that...” the girl explained, hand once again on her cheek. Her eyes lifted to eventually fall on Naoya, sitting on the side of the bed, with his nose completly blocked, a black eye, a bruised nose and an ice pack that, as you can deduce from the previous description, had a lot of work on its hands. 

Even Nanjo looked startled for a moment there.

Yukino moved backwards -hell yeah it was a chair with wheels- when Maki gave her the go ahead. She, most likely, didn't need all that encouragement to let them in, though. Kei and Elly couldn't possibly hurt Naoya.

"Don't misunderstand Eriko. I simply saw Kido here carrying Naoya like a sack of potatoes through the hallways and decided to investigate for curiosity's sake. Nothing more", Nanjo explained, arms crossed and eyes closed disdainfully, as was his prerogative.

Nanjo was never one to sugarcoat anything and his words would've definitely cut deep.  
If Naoya didn't know him as well as he did.

The boy decided he wouldn't get much across by speaking, not with his nosebleed, so he simply gave them a gentle smile and let Maki do all the explaining.

Naoya, from then on, maybe due to how hard he had just hit his head, zoned out for a good while. Thinking of the race, because how could he think of anything else when all the talk around him was about it?

He was sure he could run backwards pretty fast. He'd done it before, to escape a fuming Hanya charging down the hall straight at him. Sure, he never was good with turns, one way or the other, but he shouldn’t have had all that trouble running backwards.

So, what was the issue? What was missing?

Naoya snapped out of his introspection to a good handful of people inside the nurse' office and to Maki retelling the story, so they were all on the same level.

"So, now you're just here hiding out from Brown? And Yuka? Forever?"

Oh, that was Yosuke's voice! He was here too?

Wow, now that it was getting closer to an acceptable hour of arriving at school, a crowd had really gathered. Wasn't Miss Yoshino gonna say anything about it...? Nope. Looking back at her, she just seemed completely entertained by the ongoing gathering in her office. Every day for her must be an endless nothing, Naoya thought, for this to be considered interesting. For _listening to the same thing five times_ to be considered interesting... He suddenly felt great pity for the nurse.

"Not really, we're just here until class starts. By then, they should have come to their senses", Maki explained, shrugging. Wild assumption there, Maki. To think Brown ever came to his senses. Ever.

"I AM in my perfect senses! O-Or whatever!"

That...

That was Brown's voice.

The crowd parted to reveal that the goggled boy had somehow sneaked in way inside, while Yukino was holding a very determined Ayase in a head lock.

"Yukkiiiii! C'mon! Some new earrings are at stake!"

"N-Nno can do, Yuka. You gotta stay out here", stammered out a very flustered Yukino, who still hadn't noticed Brown had made it inside.

Reiji moved fast, though. He had already left the bed when Nanjo and Eriko entered, due to his own shyness regarding his affections for Naoya, so he crossed the distance between himself and the day's main antagonist in a split second.

"Oh h-h-hey, big guy! You wouldn't hurt me, right! I'm just a little guy, c'mon, I'm a little wimp!” Brown spoked, voice sharp in a panic, gesturing to himself, "I'm a wimpy guy! You wouldn't hurt me!"

He moved his goggles down, to place them in their rightful spot in front of his eyes.

"I have glasses! You w-wou-wouldn't punch a guy with glaaaa-glasses!"

Sensing Reiji's boiling anger, most of the crowd left as quickly as possible, practically shoving each other put of the way to make it to the door. Left behind, the usual gang of friends. Mark's (yeah, he somehow made it in as well) chuckle was heard clearer in the emptier room.

"Maaaan, chill out, you coward! We're in the _nurse's office_. Reiji can't hit you here", Mark laughed, hands in his pockets and eyebrow raised in mockery.

Reiji himself furrowed his eyebrows and looked towards the school nurse, leaning against her desk with arms crossed, who nodded slowly with eyebrows raised, as if it to say that no, obviously he couldn't hit Brown inside of the nurse's office.

With both bodyguards distracted, Hidehiko took his chance to grovel and plead.

"Naooooriiin! You can't back out now!” Brown yelped, being forced into a choke-hold by Reiji, "Do you want to see the whole class at our throats?!"

That would be amusing, thought both Masao and Nanjo, while Naoya could only think of his unlucky predisposition of getting dragged into such situations.

As in, they'd target him as well.

His hand instinctively went to shield his throat, as he slowly started to explain himself.

"Well...” he looked aside, thinking of what to say, "Ids dot as if I waddo quid..."

He looked up to see everyone staring at him, struggling to understand what he just said. Naoya sighed and gestured to Maki.

"Naoya says he doesn't want to quit, but..."  
"You faw be ouddere! I jus cad run bakwads..."  
"You saw him, he just can't run backwards"

Now it was Yukino's turn to stare quizzically at Naoya, letting Yuka go. Eyebrow quirked, she looked to the side and scratched her chin, but did not voice whatever was going through her mind. Yuka was making it a point to turn away from her disdainfully, pouting, but Yukino did not notice.

"And you're- GHK- just gonna give up like that?!” Brown replied, struggling to speak due to Reiji's death grip.

"Hey, man, just call it quits. This really isn't all that entertaining anymore", Mark sighed, gesturing towards Naoya, "Someone even got hurt. Look, just say you give up and I'll go ahead and pay everyone a nice dinner".

"Gh- Gheg! Trust me, I wou- GHG I would! But I just crossed some guys from the- GHK sports clubs!", Brown desperately slapped at Reiji's arm for him to loosen his grip, "They are already super pissed off that I 'stole Naoya', and the ones that aren't- GHRG- Have really high bets on Naoya winning!"

It didn't take long for the gang to realize what this meant.

"You're saying you're already doomed, whether Toudou wins or loses", Nanjo clarified, pushing up the bridge of his glasses to hide the concerned furrow of his brows.

Hidehiko struggled to nod.

"Great, now we're all in this mess. You really don't think before ya do this kinda crap, huh?"  
"Ghhhr- And where do ya get off acting all high and mighty, Inaba?! You were there! If ya wanted to be the Cool Moral Guy, ya coulda stopped us! Didja do that?"  
"From what I understand, no. He became a sponsor himself."  
"No one _asked_ you, Nanjo"  
"Maybe, but now I see myself involved in this mess due to your collective stupidity", Nanjo again pushed up the bridge of his glasses, "And I intend to see myself out of it."  
Mark and Brown rolled their eyes in unison.  
"Well check out mister hoity-toity over here!"  
Mark stood up straight and pretended to push some glasses up.  
"Hmph... I shall help these worthless commoners with their menial problems." He made a large gesture with his hands, "Ah, why must I involve myself with these peasants!"

Now, Nanjo was fuming.

The discussion started getting louder, at the point that Reiji was starting to throw gratuitous threats to make everyone be quiet. To prevent Naoya from getting a headache, of course.  
Eventually, Yukino, Ayase and Maki joined the confusion, leaving only a rather lost Naoya, a concerned Eriko, and a very amused Miss Yoshino left behind.

Naoya, fact of the matter, was indeed starting to get a headache.

Seeing him rub his temples, Eriko inconspicuously called his attention with a light touch to his shoulder. She nodded towards the door.

That's right! Everyone else was too occupied arguing with each other to notice if Naoya left or not! The perfect plan.

The boy took one last look towards the compact group, checking if they were still distracted, and gingerly got on his feet.

He once more looked towards the group... To see Reiji staring straight into his eyes.

Uh-oh.

Maybe the horse jokes about him weren't all that untrue, because the only thing Naoya thought to do in the panic of someone caught red-handed...

Was run.

Yes, run. With two tissues up his nostrils, a dizzying headache and one hand still holding an ice pack to his forehead.

Run.

Naoya usually performed well under pressure, but apparently only when the stakes were on a level of life-and-death.

He began his brave escape with one large, running step, which called the attention of everyone in the room to him.

The door was inches away. Open wide. Beyond, the freedom of the corridors, for him to flee again and hide away somewhere else.

His obstacle? Nanjo's lightning-fast reflexes. His freakish dragonfly-like moves that managed to grab hold of Naoya's sleeve just as he was zooming past the group.

As if in slow motion, the last thing Naoya heard before the ground slid from under him and before his back slammed against the ground, was...

"Oh, Naoya, hang on a second."

And then, few words from Miss Yoshino.

"Ah, they polished in here too."


	4. Quantum running into the ninth dimension

As luck, mind - a miserable little stale crumb of luck, all things considered, would have it, Naoya's back didn't suffer any serious damage from slamming against the ground.

It didn't even hurt enough for Naoya to head on home.

Well, it did. It really did - sakes alive, with all the damage Naoya had sustained that day, he really should've gone home straight away.

But Hidehiko yelped whenever a captain of a sports team passed by the door like circling vultures overhead, Naoya didn't really wanted to explain all that happened in a measly two hours to his parents and Eriko was worried about all the classes Naoya would miss.

On top of all that, Hanya was making his morning patrol around the school, looking for poor innocent students to torment. The gang tried to put their heads together and decide over what problem he'd throw the bigger fit: Naoya looking like he fell down a flight of stairs, or Naoya going home because he looked like he fell down a flight of stairs.

By the time they'd reached a consensus vis a vis what would make Hanya more apoplectic, the first bell had already rung and the group of friends had no option but help Naoya shamble towards the classroom and hope that, if they acted casual enough about the whole thing, no one would notice.

Of course, that didn't work.

Naoya looked like he belonged in an ad for an injury attorney. There were bets riding on his ability to _run well_. For better or worse, the amount of people who cared about his wellbeing had grown tenfold over night. The groups efforts at stealth lasted them a good three seconds.

The boy was quickly swarmed by a horde of people - who, thank you for asking, had not been present in the nurse's office - questioning him about... Well. What hit him. A semi-truck?

'Nope! The semi-truck victim was me, haha!'  
Great input, Kazuya, thought Naoya. Thanks.

His time in class lasted barely half an hour, too. The teacher, if a bit reluctantly at the sight of a very battered Naoya, told him to straighten his back. Naoya, ever the polite boy, did as told, and the wounded muscles on his back decided to reward his manners by sending a jolt of excruciating pain throughout his entire body.

Naoya responded by letting out a painful scream that could easily qualify as the loudest thing that ever came out of his mouth, hands desperately massaging his back to try in vain to make the pain fade away. Mark even woke up from his nap with the noise, watching, wide eyed, as Naoya writhed in his seat under the stare of everyone in class. Oh, geez, that was bad. That was such a painful display that Masao could even feel the pain in his back.

Class distracted, Mark turned in his seat to glare at Nanjo, who, very uncharacteristicly, was staring at Naoya with a shocked, guilty expression in his face.  
The blonde boy would've admired Nanjo's novel beet-red face and beads of sweat rolling down his temples like ones from a faulty faucet for a while longer, but to torment him verbally was even more amusing.

"This is your fault, Nanjo", Mark whispered between gritted teeth, to the boy in the seat behind him, "You're just as bad as Brown"  
Nanjo snapped to face Mark, so appalled that he stuttered for a good three seconds. Fumbling with his cravat in order to calm himself down and concentrate on defending himself.  
"He-he's obviously fa-faking it! Such a slip wouldn't have hurt anyone!"  
Now a handful of classmates were turning to face them. To hear the ~hot tea~ coming from their discussion. They whispered amongst themselves, shooting Nanjo some not-so-discreet stares and pointing behind their hands. This only made the bespectacled boy more nervous, sweat dripping from his head onto the tablem  
"Faking it? Bro, we're talking about _Naoya Toudou_ ", Mark raised an eyebrow, poking the other boy on the nose, "He couldn't fake a cold!"  
Nanjo stuttered another justification, pulling on his sweat-drenched collar to loosen it as his glasses started to fog up, his classmates whispering now rising volume to some rumor-brewing boil of mutters.

Rapidly losing control on the situation, the teacher told Naoya to go home. And stay there. The rest of the day. And until he was cured.  
Just go, you look like hell.

Naoya left with Maki at his side, offering him her shoulder for support.  
Behind him, there faded the sound of the teacher desperately trying to get the class to be quiet while rumours of Nanjo performing a tiger suplex on Naoya (after Hidehiko dropkicked him) grew stronger.

\--

The walk home was long, harduous, painful and mostly a blur in Naoya's mind, who was dedicating all of his brainpower to not think about the pain tearing apart his back.   
(And, as you may have guessed, failing miserably)

The pair trudged and stumbled through the empty streets of the mid-morning city, not a soul to be found aside from an entourage of stray dogs that decided on following them from a distance.

Like vultures following an animal that broke a leg, Naoya thought to himself, fearing for a second that he'd just given the dogs some helpful ideas of where to get their next meal. Realizing what he was thinking, he shook his head and chuckled to himself in disbelief, still keeping a wary eye on those drooling pups.

It was about 9 am when they reached his front door and Naoya nearly collapsed in pain trying to reach his keys in his bag, forcing the girl to rummage through his stuff against both of their wills. (Why do you even have so many acorns in your bag?!, asked Maki incredulously)

His parents were at work, obviously, so Maki was met was a deathly silence and no one to explain her best friend's situation to. Which was a shame, since she was becoming an expert at explaining this one incident, much like a tour guide of an one horse town.

The girl still had a full day of classes to get to and Naoya didn't want to be the reason they both got bad grades; so, after much convincing that he wouldn't leave his bed unless it was for emergencies, Maki left his house for school for the second time that day and Naoya dove into his bed.

Geez, what a weird day it ended up being, thought Naoya then, cursing himself for not getting ibuprofen before laying down.

\--

Naoya's recovery went... Mostly smoothly.   
After giving his parents the play-by-play and receiving a very upset speech about bad influences and learning to say no and not running in the halls and thinking for yourself and cliff jumping, Naoya was left to his own devices.

Don't misunderstand me, though. Said devices were just sleeping, reading comics and playing whatever game he didn't have to get up to fetch. No further shenanigans were carried out.  
"Hey, I could go out and get you some new manga!"  
'...'  
"What, too soon?"  
Oh, and conversations with the imagined representation of his dead brother that read 4-koma manga and played Power Instinct in the deepest recesses of his mind. The usual. 

His parents forced him to stay home the next day, despite the pain having mostly subsided. He thought with dread of the pile of missed work, growing with every hour that passed, but he couldn't say he rejected their reasoning. Going to school like that was just asking to make things worse, even he had to admit that!  
So, his parents went to work, as they did, and he moved spots to drape himself over the couch much like a Goya painting.  
(The Clothed Maja, mostly, but Saturn Eating A Son around lunchtime)

He got some visitors, of course. Like Maki, who came to bring him some games and manga before heading to school and just immediately placed herself as the hero of the day.  
Reiji, who immediately left in shock because he showed up during Naoya's Saturn Eating A Son phase, then returned with a meal more complete than a slice of bread with butter on it. He claimed it was only his duty to make sure he was properly fed. Then left in a flustered hurry when he thought he heard people approaching the house.  
Brown, who came to appease his guilt with penance. Ayase as well, for the same reasons but against her will, since Yukino dragged her there.

Just before it was time for his parents to return, Yukino sent the other two on their way home and sat down to have a serious talk with Naoya. As she was wont to do.  
"Sports day is tomorrow" Yukino somberly pointed out, pouring him a glass of gatorade as one would pour a glass of whisky.   
She stared at him with her unwavering gaze, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her legs.  
"Do you have intentions of participating on it?"

Naoya's eyebrows shot up. He had completely forgotten how this whole thing had started, with all the mess that had gone down. He looked to the side, avoiding his friend's gaze, and ran his hand through his hair.  
"My back doesn't hurt anymore and I don't want to leave Brown and Yuka to the wolves", Naoya sighed, closing his eyes and laying his hands over them, "But apparently I can't run backwards to save my life". 

Yukino made a thoughtful noise, leaning back on her chair, one leg over the other and hand on her chin. Deep in thought, she stared down at the coffee table between them.  
"It's weird. It really is", Yukino muttered, looking back up at him, "I've seen you run backwards in the hall before. You could win the race without breaking a sweat."

Naoya shrugged. Yeah, so he thought as well. But when he ran in the halls, he was just thinking about going from point A to point B, or getting away from someone. In the racetrack...  
"I have to think about the lines, and when I think about them I have to start thinking how to move my feet", Naoya sighed, gesturing with his hand.  
Yukino once more stared straight at him, brows furrowed before shooting up in realization.   
Whatever that realization was, she did not explain it then, because a quick glance at the clock announced how late she was for dinner and she had to quickly make her way back home.

\--

The next day, Naoya decided to go to the sports festival. 

Perhaps because of a sense of comradery, a sense of duty, a sense of the dramatics involved. Not that Naoya ever bothered much with the latter, but with the boring day he'd spent at home he was cruising for anything worth more than a perusal look and a 'hmm'.

For the sake of dramatics, he managed to avoid all of his acquaintances on the way to the school gym lockerrooms.  
It was worth it, just to enter the room and silence all of the conversations, for Brown to throw himself at his feet, sobbing dramatically. He'd been gnawing on his nails the whole time before, torn between trying to run himself and be maimed by the mob, or throw in the towel and be maimed by the mob. He seemed content enough to see that he wouldn't be maimed alone.

-

"Naorin, I'm... Really thankful you're doing this, but I can't force ya, ya know", Brown said, turning over his goggles on his hands, in lieu of a hat, "It would make me feel... Bad. Guilty. I already put ya through so much..."  
Naoya stopped his warm up exercises to give Brown an understanding look. As much as he could muster one, that is. Naoya was never a master of facial expressions, so to Hidehiko it just looked like he was staring him down, silently. Talk about sweating bullets. But the other boy slapped him in the shoulder and then gave him a thumbs up, and the meaning came across just fine.  
"Let's get beat up together, buddy", Naoya said, nodding.  
Brown's eye lit up and his smile practically split his face. He kicked the door beside him twice.

  
"That means you too, Yuka!!"  
"No way!! I'm, like, washing my hands of this!"  
Hidehiko's smile fell as he turned his head to face the door, brow furrowed.  
"Yuka!"  
"Noooo way! I'm not involved in this in any way!"  
"Then why are you waiting outside the boy's lockerroom?", Naoya asked, scratching the back of his head.  
Yuka was silent for a second, perhaps contemplative.

Then she opened the door, hand covering her eyes.  
"Okay, fine. Naoya, I'm like, really sorry", she sighed, shaking her head, "I let greed get the better of me, and that's awful".  
"We're all dressed in here, y'know"  
Naoya once again showed his trademark understanding look, which to any outsider would just look like a neutral face. Ayase still had her eyes covered, not trusting Brown's words, so it didn't bother her much more than the grave silence. Once more to get the meaning across, Naoya placed his hand on her shoulder and reassured her.  
"Let's all get beat up together."

-

The other two went on ahead, arms around each other's shoulders. Their eyes closed, sad smiles on their faces, like prisioners walking to death row. They stumbled from side to side, humming a sad, off-key tune to themselves as they went, ready to meet their makers.  
A bit dramatic, Naoya thought, before being stopped by Yukino by another swift hand applied to his shoulder.

"Naoya," she said, crouching down to be eye-level with him, "When you're running, close your eyes."  
Naoya could only react with a 'huh?'.

It was already hard enough for him to follow the racetrack lines with his eyes open! This was the lousiest advice Yukino ever gave.

"Don't give me sass now", Yukino grumbled, poking his chest with a finger, "I'm not finished. I want you to close your eyes, and picture that you're in a hallway"

Visualization, then? That was... An idea. An idea Naoya wasn't exactly sure would work.

"What do you have to lose?", asked Yukino, stepping away with a shrug, "Overthinking is just slowing you down".

Naoya scratched his chin, pondering. Yukino was right. It didn't need a genius to see that what prevented him from running at his usual cruising speed was all the aspects of official running he had to take into consideration.   
And, yeah. He was already expecting to be chased by a mob of angry jocks after this. Nothing to lose.

Naoya thanked Yukino for the advice and carried on through the long hallways of the gym. Unfortunately, no one else aside from Reiji came to wish him luck, because everyone who wasn't participating in a sport had classes as usual.  
Reiji was just an expert truant.

The shirtless boy, in what Naoya interpreted as a display of affection, placed his hand on the back of the other boy's head and shoved it against his bare chest, holding it there for a moment before letting go.   
"Come to me if they try to hurt you", was the only thing Reiji said after trying to suffocate Naoya with his pecs, after which he set off towards the lecture he was missing.

-

The earring'd-boy stood at the starting line, shivering in the morning frost. Every racer -all students who Naoya didn't know- had to wear a sleeveless jersey with a number in the back... For whatever reason. Naoya might've been the star of the racetrack, but that didn't mean he ever knew what the hell went down beyond his races.

He closed his eyes with a sigh, sinking deep into his thoughts. Picturing the school hallways... Vast, endless, labyrynthine... Doors on either side of him, the vast majority locked... For whatever reason...  
"You got it pretty much down!", commented Kazuya, checking out the place with his hands in his pockets.   
The tulpa turned to look straight at Naoya, with a smug half-grin.  
"Now just needs those ghost basketballs chasing you down!"

Naoya chuckled to himself. He doubted he could ever call memories of his demon-fighting days earlier that year nice... But thinking back to when he first saw a platoon of synchronized basketballs followed by a moving toilet, he couldn't help but relive his guffaw of shocked disbelief.

The signal of the start of the race reached him in the depths of his consciousness.  
As irony would have it, a gaggle of basketball demons appeared with it.

"...Uh oh", commented Kazuya, wide eyed, disappearing with a puff of smoke into deeper depths of the self, the name of which no one could recall. A little help, Carl Jung?  
You can guess what Naoya did next.

The reader should know how running in dreams usually goes: poorly. Running while astral-projecting into the school hallways should've gone about the same way, but not for Naoya. Oh, no no no. 

He could feel that tiled ground beneath his feet, the vibrations of the bouncing basketballs and the fear of a delayed visit to the Agastya tree in his heart.  
Not even the corners he'd constructed himself bothered him! He couldn't even care about them, not with these weird Jock demons ready to dodgeball him out of existence. 

Nope! It was just one feet, before the other, and so on and so forth; all that really fast. The race, the residual pain of his many mishaps, the rules; all of that had fled from his brain, leaving only primordial fear and really loud panicked yelling echoing in his mind.

He only came back to reality after Brown tackled him to the ground with a very intense hug.

"Naoya!! Oh Naoya, you beautiful bastard! If I wasn't scared of Reiji I would kiss you right now!!", Brown yelled through sobs of relief, holding the other boy against the ground by his shoulders.

The pierced boy blinked twice, the fog of his self-imposed illusion preventing him from putting two and two together.  
"I... I won?", Naoya asked, as his smile widened to a grin.

Brown nodded enthusiastically, jumping to his feet and dragging Naoya with him, again in a tight hug. Hidehiko, Reiji-fearing as he was, still decided on pressing the wettest kiss to Naoya's cheek in his excitement.  
Yuka's enthusiastic shouts reached him, and a second later, Yuka herself, nearly sending him to the ground again.  
"You did it, you crazy son of a gun! Were you just messing with us?!", Yuka said, cackling in disbelief.

Brown took her hands and the two danced in a circle, laughing about all the money they just made.  
Naoya looked back to the racetrack, hand over his eyes to block out the sun. Only now was the second place finishing.

Both cheers and jeers were coming from the horde of jocks gathered in the sidelines.  
Though not for long, because just as Hidehiko and Ayase struggled to get Naoya on their shoulders and carry him off like the hero he was (enormous height difference be damned), a fight started brewing amongst the onlookers.  
"That was bogus and you know it!"  
"He gets suplexed, misses a day of school and wins the race?! I'm calling sus on that!"  
"What are you even saying, 'sus'?! He won fair and square, you saw him!"  
"Yeah, what more do you need, dipstick?!"  
"He was running with his eyes closed, how the hell can you trust that!"  
"It's called visualization, dumbass! You never run before?!"  
"I'm in the volleyball team, idiot!"  
"Tch, figures"  
"Figures? Figures?! What do you mean figures?!"  
"I mean figures!"  
"Then come and figure to my face, bastard!" 

Punches started flying, interrupting the bookies' attempt of grabbing Naoya by his shoulders and feet and carrying him off like a lawnchair.   
"Uhh... I think that's our fault", Brown helpfully pointed out, scratching the back of his head in embarrassement.  
Yuka put her hands on her hips, looking at the in-fighting mob with mild surprise.  
"Well. There's only one thing to do, then", the girl said, looking towards the two boys and giving a curt nod, to which the two responded in kind.

Yes, only one thing to do.

They ran off, hoping that Reiji was still around to hide them.

==

And for those wondering how it all went down after that, Naoya payed everyone a Deluxe Menu at Peace Burger with his share of the money. Still, Brown and Yuka were bullied by the others into covering a third of the expenses each.

Backwards races were banned from the Sports Festival line-up after the riot gave Ms. Yoshino three full days of work. This made St. Hermelin the only school to have banned both a play, and a made up sport. Go St. Hermelin?

Maki went on to be asked to act as agent for many other jocks. However, she never agreed to any of the of the offers, since she had had enough adventures for a year. Naoya agreed with a solemn nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out most highschools in Japan don't have sports festivals? So I'm just basing this from my (western) highschool memories.
> 
> Which is that barely anyone ever saw the races because everyone that didn't participate in a sport was busy trying to negotiate with the teachers so they could skip class and go watch the Sports.  
> Never worked once.  
> Nice memories...  
> COMING NEXT, BRAND NEW FIC: The Innocent Sin fellas and the BATTLE OF THE BANDS (jk, probably not)


End file.
